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Saturday, May 22, 2010

The finger puppet incident

A few weeks ago, Kyle and I went paint balling with some friends. After our afternoon of playing GI Joe and GI Jane we went out to stuff our faces with grub. Specifically chicken, noodles and kimchi. It was a pleasant afternoon, but the running through trees wear janitor looking suites and huge post apocalyptic helmets, shooting at targets, avoiding sharp needles and being hit by hard exploding paint balls makes one exhausted. But what made my body quiver with fatigue was the thought of taking the subway the two hours home. Arggg, living in the country has its downsides. As we were walking towards the subway however we were stopped by two college age Koreans."May I ask you a few questions?" the girl asks.We are familiar with this drill. Students are often given the task of conversing with foreigners for grades. As teachers, despite our desire to return home as quickly as possible, we felt obligated to play along."Sure" we said with as much enthusiasm as we could muster."I was given a project for my school to have a creative conversation with a foreigner. Do you mind performing a finger puppet play with me? It won't take very long." she asks kindlyI have to remind my brain to close my mouth. We have been asked survey questions before, but never asked to perform a play, let a long a finger puppet play. I volunteer Kyle as I am quite tired.The play is written in English and is a shortened version of a Korean folktale. I didn't film the entire thing as I wasn't sure how much space we had left on our card, but you get the idea.Click to watch here.

It was in these early days that there lived siblings: Haesik (해식) the older brother and Dalsun (달순) the younger sister. Their mother was a poor peasant woman who sold rice-cakes for a living.

The mother was returning from the village one day when she was encountered by a tiger perched on a hill demanding a rice-cake in exchange for sparing her life. She gave it to him and the tiger went away, only to appear before her at the next hill; this time demanding two rice cakes. She gave him the cakes, only to find him again on the third hill, this time asking for four rice cakes. When the mother finally ran out of rice cakes to feed him, the tiger threatened to devour her.

The mother pleaded, saying she was the sole mother of two children. Upon hearing this the tiger's hunger grew even more vicious. He devoured the mother and then took on her clothing as a disguise. He then made his way to the house where he knew the children awaited.

At the house the children were worried that their mother was not returning. Haesik suggested they lock the door, when he heard a voice calling them from outside. Dalsun, the younger, thought it was her mother, but Haesik knew the voice was different and sensed that something was not right. The tiger urged them to open the door, but Haesik staunchly refused.

Not giving in, the tiger used some of the powder left from the rice cakes and applied it on the back of his hand, making them look white. When he inserted his fingers through a space in the door, Dalsun became convinced that it was their mother and immediately opened the door. The tiger chased them until the children climbed up to the safety of a tree.

When the tiger found an axe in the house and began chopping down on the tree, Dalsun made a prayer asking the heavens to send down a strong rope if they should be saved and a rotten rope if they were to be damned. A strong rope was sent down, and both siblings climbed up until they reached the heavens.

Seeing this, the tiger made a similar request, but the rope he got was rotten and he fell in a millet field. His blood stained the millet and this is why millet stalk is said to be red.

In heaven, Haesik became the sun (Haennim 햇님) and Dalsun became the moon (Dallim 달님), but later Dalsun complained that she was afraid of the dark. Thus Haesik decided to stand in for her so that Dalsun could become the sun.

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Welcome

Thank you for visiting our blog. Originally, this blog started as a template for my (Vanessa) thoughts. Over time, it has evolved to be a travel memoir and a general journal for our( my husband and my) life together. Kyle and I have been married for nearly 4 years now, but have been together, forever, since December 2000. We are so lucky to have found true love, and thank God everyday for our many blessings. We are from Texas but have been transported across the world to teach English in Korea for an indefinite amount of time. The culture of Korea is interesting and different and always provides great writing material. If you would like to follow us on this wild and crazy ride, please subscribe above. Once again thank you, and we would love to hear from you!

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"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass; it's about learning to dance in the rain."

“All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost" JRR Tolkien

This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave. ~ Elmer Davis

"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools." Martin Luther King jr.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. -Confucius

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience, but rather we are Spiritual Beings having a human experience - anonymous

Imagination is more important than knowledge, for whilst knowledge points to all there is, imagination points to all there could be. Albert Einstein

"Risk more than others think is safe. Care more than others think is wise. Dream more than others think is practical. Expect more than others think is possible. " ~ Cadet Maxim

The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions ~ Oliver Wendell

The cavity which suffering carves into our souls will one day also be the receptacle of joy.Neil A. Maxwell

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness."- MLK

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. -- Maya Angelou

No Difference / Shel Silverstein

Small as a peanut Big as a giant,

We're all the same size

When we turn off the light.

Red black or orange,

Yellow or white

We all look the same

When we turn off the light.

So maybe the way

To make everything right

Is for God to just reach out

And turn off the light!

To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the illumined mind the whole world burns and sparkles with light.- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If the only tool we have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." Abraham Maslow"The world suffers a lot, not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people." Napoleon

“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.” Pablo Neruda

"The world doesn't come to the clever folks; it comes to the stubborn, obstinate, one idea at a time people".Mary Roberts Rinehart

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Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. - Marianne Williamson

"I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we too, will be remembered not for our victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit."-President John F. Kennedy

"Listen to the MUSTN'T, child,

Listen to the DON'Ts

Listen to the SHOULDN'Ts

The IMPOSSIBLES,

the WON'Ts

Listen to the NEVER HAVEs

Then listen close to me--

Anything can happen, child,

ANYTHING can be."

Shel Silverstein

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.Marie Curie

“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep spring from coming.” (Pablo Neruda)

Life isn't about how to survive the storm, but how to dance in the rain

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where, I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you in this way because I don’t know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep it is your eyes that close. ~Pablo Neruda

Hope is like a bird that senses the dawn and carefully starts to sing while it is still dark. - Anonymous

If we all did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves. Thomas Edison

Mind is consciousness which has put on limitations. You are originally unlimited and perfect. Later you take on limitations and become the mind. - Sri Ramana Maharsh

Happiness is to be found along the way, not at the end of the road, for then the journey is over and it is too late. Today, this hour, this minute is the day, the hour, the minute for each of us to sense the fact that life is good, with all of its trials and troubles, and perhaps more interesting because of them.- Robert R. Updegraff